Company at center of Brazil corruption scandal

Opposition
lawmakers revealed $782,000 in previously undisclosed payments from
Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to Kuczynski's two consulting
firms between 2004 and 2006 when he was Peru's finance minister and
prime minister.

Odebrecht
continued paying advisory fees to the firms, Westfield Capital and First
Capital, until 2012, well after Kuczynski left public office and before
his presidential campaign in 2016. In total, Odebrecht paid Kuczynski's
firms $4.8 million in advisory fees from 2004 and 2012.

Kuczynski has acknowledged his firms accepted the payments but says he did nothing illegal.

Odebrecht
also says its payments to Kuczynski weren't illegal. It says its
contracts with the firms were exclusively managed by Chilean businessman
Gerardo Sepulveda, Kuczynski's partner at the firms.

In December 2016, the US Justice Department hit Odebrecht with $3.5 billion record fine for dolling out bribes to officials across Latin America and beyond.

Several
Latin American prosecutors have opened investigations into Odebrecht in
their respective countries. In a plea agreement, Odebrecht admitted
giving nearly $800 million in bribes to leaders and individuals in order
to get contracts for construction projects.

Leaders accused

Several former presidents and lawmakers in Peru along were accused of taking part in the scandal prior to Kuczynski.

Peru's
former President Ollanta Humala and his wife are in prison while
authorities investigate their involvement in the Odebrecht bribe.

Police
in Peru raided the home of former President Alejandro Toledo in
February for allegedly accepting a Odebrecht bribe. Toledo denied the
charges via Twitter but has gone missing, is thought to be in the US,
and could face jail time.

Kuczynski served as finance and prime minister during Toledo's presidency.

Latin America's star faces corruption scandal

Peru's
corruption crisis could mark a turn of fortunes for one of the region's
star economies. Peru has led Latin America in growth the last two
years, and in 2015 the International Monetary Fund put Peru on the world
stage by hosting its annual meeting in the country's capital, Lima. It
was the first time in 50 years the IMF hosted its meeting anywhere in
Latin America.

Economists didn't expect Peru to go off the rails if Kuczynski was impeached like Brazil's economy did while former President Dilma Rousseff went through her impeachment process for allegedly messing with Brazil's budget to hide gaps.

But
like Brazil, experts say, Peru faces one major variable: How deep does
the corruption run in Peru's leadership ranks? Brazil's infamous "car
wash" investigation sent dozens of high-ranking lawmakers to jail.

"It's
unclear at this stage how big this becomes," said Neil Shearing,
emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, a research firm.

"It's much more difficult for the government to get its agenda through congress," amid a corruption scandal.